Al-Fatihah: Ruby Ahmad (Updated)

Pic of Kak Ruby & myself at KLCC taken a few years back.

Blogger, Ruby Ahmad, passed away at 9 pm last night at Gleneagles Medical Centre, KL.

Her jenazah has already been brought back to her home at 95/50 Gedung Lalang, Ampangan, 70400 Seremban.

Funeral will be held today, 16th March 2010, after asar (waiting for her son to come back from Dubai).

May Allah bless her soul.

Innalillahi wa inna ilaihi raji'un.

*Update: Just got back to Ipoh after visiting Kak Ruby's jenazah in Seremban. When news about her passing went around this morning, some were saying that she died after just a bout of cough. Apparently, Kak Ruby had been diagnosed with breast cancer since a few years back, but she had kept it to herself and close family members. Even her close friends didn't have a clue. She underwent treatment, and survived. It seems in January this year, the doctors noticed a few spots at her liver. Over the weekend, she complained to her husband about some pain she was having, and noticed that her eyes too had gone a bit yellowish. She was warded on Sunday, and passed on last night.

Busy weekend

The exhibition in conjunction with International Women's Day went into full swing over the weekend. With more crowd anticipated, many activities were held during the weekend.

I had however promised Kerp that I'd be attending his wedding reception in Kelana Jaya, so Saturday was my off day. After all the obstacles Kerp & Pinky (his wifey) had to go through, I made it a point to attend. I still went in the morning to Kinta City Shopping Complex to help set up the Buddies booth, and once the volunteer on duty arrived and after briefing him on what to do, I left things to him.

It was about 10.20 am by the time I made a move from Ipoh. I had promised an alumni senior of mine that I'd notify her once I leave Ipoh. She wanted to pass some goodies for me to distribute to the poor HIV families under my care, and she thought it would be better if she caught me before the wedding reception. I told her I'd usually reach the Damansara Jaya exit in 2 hours, and since yesterday I needed to take the Subang exit, I told her it would probably be 2 ++ hours.

But hey, I actually made it to Subang toll in 2 hours. I stopped after the toll, and noticed there was a text message from my senior, to say that she was waiting for me by the roadside in front of the CGC building. Got from her some clothes, pillows and a pair of ladies shoes.

Then off I went to Dewan MBPJ Kelana Jaya, where the wedding reception was held. The moment I got to the parking lot, I saw Raden Galoh and her family. RG too wanted to pass 3 bags of toys to be given to the infected/affected kids under Buddies. Ahh... great! I always prefer to make my trips to KL or anywhere else more than just a single purpose trip. This time, other than getting to attend Kerp's wedding reception as promised, I also managed to get a load of stuff to be given away to the poor HIV families.

Sorry, I didn't bring my camera along to the wedding, so no pics from me. But I did get to meet quite a number of fellow bloggers, among them were Dato Rocky, Kak Ena, Kak Ton, Mat Salo, Shah, Zorro, Elviza and of course, Raden Galoh. Many of Kerp's wheelchair friends also came.

I left right after the arrival of the royal guests, HRH The Regent of Perak & his consort. (Oh, bukan tak hormat my raja, but I had already eaten and was already outside the dewan when he arrived).

By about 4.30 pm, I was already back in Ipoh. It did occur to me to just drop by Kinta City for the exhibition, but I finally decided not to. I needed some rest myself. Besides, today, the last day of the exhibition, I was on the morning shift.

But hey, I still managed to mow the lawn (yep, using my brand new "kerbau") this morning before going for the exhibition!

Together with me on the morning shift was a young "temporary" volunteer. Temporary? Well, she was interested to become a volunteer, but she will only be around until August or so, as such we can't really take her in to meet our PLHIV clients and all (due to confidentiality issues). But taking her in to help with exhibitions and awareness campaigns wouldn't be a problem at all. And it would be good exposure for her!

2 volunteers and 2 buddy bears

Right behind our table, there were handcrafts... nope, these were not made of rattan, they were actually made using recycled magazines! Anyone interested to find out more, or if you wish to order (manalah tau, nak buat bekas hantaran ke, or nak buat souvenir items ke), you may contact Rita.

Performances on stage began at about 11.30 am or so. The Pink Champion of Perak (support group for breastcancer) started off with a mime.

Then the DJ called for 5 women to come on stage for a game. The game? Since the theme of IWD is "Equal Rights, Equal Opportunities - Progress for All", the women were supposed to spell Progress for All... backwards!

Next up, JAZZERCISE!

The jazzercise instructor and her team performing.

And this was the scene when she got members of the audience to join her on stage!

Oh no, I didn't join the jazzercise! Didn't want my body to shake on stage in front of everybody! Shy lah! After all, I had my share of exercise for the day when I mowed the lawn at home earlier in the morning!

But I did join the next event called "Drum Circle" organised by KAMI. Right now I can't for the life of me remember what KAMI stands for, but it's a family support group for mental illnesses. By this time, my shift was just over, and 2 other volunteers came to our booth to take over.

Yep, that's me on stage with a kompang just waiting for instructions.

Then a few of us exchanged intruments. First the kompang, then I got to hentam the... errmm... whatever-you-call-it drum.

There were a few other performances after that, but since my shift was already over, and I figured I needed some rest after a stretch of activities for the whole week, so by 3 pm I left.

Tomorrow, after office I'd better go to my NGO center to make sure that all the reports for our coming AGM are ready to be distributed. We need to send out the notice and reports to all members ASAP as our AGM will be at the end of this month.

I'd also better check out on Halimah... if her baby has been discharged from the hospital. She did mention to me that the baby had some "jangkitan kuman", but I don't really know what kind of infection she meant.

A blog reader has also donated some money through me to be given to Lin, who needs to go through an op in early April to remove her fibroid, so I'd better make sure I pass the money to her soon so that she doesn't worry too much about her finances for the time being.

Ah yes, back to normal routine...

The exhibition

The exhibition at Kinta City in conjunction with International Women's Day, which was launched on Monday, 8th March, is still on. For Buddies, today was our first day at the exhibition.

I had initially wanted to get all the materials from our centre yesterday, after the meeting. But since the meeting ended quite late, I decided to get the things this morning before going to my office.

So yep, that was what I did. The centre is not that far from my home anyway, so it didn't really cause me any inconvenience to drop by. I then went straight to my office, only to leave again at 9.30 am to head to Kinta City to set up our booth. Although my shift today was from 2 - 6pm, I still had to go in the morning to set up the booth.

Since the main doors to the shopping complex only opens at 10 am, the exact time that the exhibition starts, I had to go in through the loading bay. There I was carrying the buntings, posters, and 3 bags of pamphlets/brochures/bookmarks - all at one go - to save me the trouble of having to make a few trips to my car.

The 2 who was on duty for this morning's shift came in at 10 am, after the doors to the public opened. I then left them and headed back to my office, and only came back to Kinta City at 2 pm after my lunch and zuhr prayer.

A rep of the Bar Council Legal Aid Centre (Perak Branch) with one of our volunteers (in the red vest) posing in front of our booth.

We didn't have enough space to put up all our posters, so we used up the space at back of our buntings. Yep that's Siti Nurhaliza and Umie Aida (their posters lah, not them in person!). Maybe tomorrow I'll bring Dayang Nurfaizah along (her poster I mean).

The stamp of support for equal rights and equal opportunities. As of today, 3 pieces of the above have already been stamped and signed by members of the public.

Today being a working day, we didn't really expect many people to turn up. But hey, it wasn't so bad. It was after all, a shopping complex, and so yes, we did have some interested people turning up at our booth. 2 ladies even inquired about how to go for testing, claiming that "a friend" is constantly worried about being infected because her ex-husband (divorced about 4 years ago) was an IVDU. They even showed some interest in volunteering. I hope they eventually will.

It was during my shift that we got our brand new red vest (as in one of the pics above) which we plan to wear during all our awareness programmes. So yeah, the 2 of us in the afternoon shift were the first 2 to wear the vest.

My shift ended at 6 pm when another colleague, the vice-chair came over right after work. Tomorrow I will have to go through the same routine again. Go to centre to get more brochures and bookmarks. And oh, some condoms too. Leave office by 9.30 to set up booth before rushing back to office again. Then after lunch, rush to Kinta City for my shift at the booth.

Oh by the way, Halimah called me up today to tell me that she had already given birth last Saturday. My mind was too occupied with the exhibition I forgot to ask if it was a boy or a girl...

The discussion, the lawn mower and the 888 tag

As mentioned in my previous posting, I had been invited to join the discussion organised by the women’s wing of a political party, pertaining to problems faced by women. I didn’t get any proper letter to really know the exact topic to be discussed, but I just went anyway.

It was only at the meeting itself did I get the letter, and the actual topic of discussion was “Bagaimana Menangani Masalah Sosial”.

Other than representatives of the political party itself, others invited were NGOs, JAIP and the police. All the representatives were women.

As always, matters pertaining to women’s rights were raised… we spoke about empowering the women etc but then we realised, maybe we have been targeting the wrong groups for awareness. Many of the awareness programmes had been targeting the women, but what’s the point if men themselves are not made aware of their responsibilities? So yeah, target the MEN!!

Anyway, all the problems seem to be inter-related to one main thing – FAMILY.

I shall not go into each and every detail of the discussions. If we had not focused on a few major topics, then discussions would probably still be going on at this very moment! So we all agreed to set up a few sub-committees. I volunteered myself to be in the sub-committee for the setting up of a shelter home in Perak. A home which accepts the problematic cases without prejudice and without making any prejudgments. A home which wouldn’t say no to HIV cases.

I had expected the discussions to end by 4 pm (we started at 2 pm), but it went on and on until after 4.30 pm. Immediately after the meeting off I went to a machinery shop which sells stuff like lawn mowers and the likes. I had initially sent my old lawn mower there for servicing but when I got to the shop yesterday, I decided to trade in the old faithful for a new lawn mower. The old one is already at least 10 years old! A new one should be easier to start! I had promised the guy I’d come and get the new lawn mower at 4 pm today, but I was still in the discussion then. When I got to the shop, the guy said, “Haiya, saya ingat you sudah lupa! Saya punya orang sudah tarok minyak semua, tengok you tada datang. Pukui lima setengah tutup kedai lor!”

“Sorrylah taukeh, meeting habis lambat leh… ini baru pukui lima, sempat lagi apa?”

So yeah, I’ve got myself a new toy at home now. Am not sure when I’m gonna start “playing” with it. Maybe on Sunday, before my 10 am shift at the exhibition in Kinta City. Otherwise it will have to be during one of the weekdays next week but I will have to get it done before next weekend.

After a short rest at home, I checked my emails and then off I went blog-hopping… only to realise that I had been tagged by a blogging cat for the 888 tag. I promised her I’d respond, so here’s my response!

The rule:
1. Go to your photo files… select the 8th photo folder
2. Select the 8th photo in that folder
3. Post that photo along with the story behind it
4. Then challenge 8 blogging friends to do the same.

Hmmm… okay kitty, I’ve checked my photo files. They are divided into 5 main folders – Family, Alumni, Office, Buddies and Blogger. There’s no 8th folder. But I still kasi chan. The main folder have sub-folders under them, but only the Buddies folder have more than 8 sub-folders. The rest have less. So yes, I kasi chan again. I selected the 8th sub-folder in the Buddies folder. The sub-folder is for the Buddies Annual Family Day 2009. That settles rule #1.

Then I selected the 8th photo in that sub-folder to comply with rule #2.

Then comes rule #3. Aiseh… post the photo along with the story behind it?? Errrr… that particular photo shows a group of my PLHIV clients. For confidentiality purposes, I am NOT supposed to show pics of the PLHIVs to others! So sorry, I cannot comply with rule #3.

And because of that, definitely I cannot go on to rule #4!

But hey Cat-in-Sydney, I promised I’d respond… and I have responded! Aci tak aci belakang kira!!

The talk

Yesterday as I was on my way to the launch of the International Women's Day events at Kinta City Shopping Complex, MF (hai sayang... tee hee) called me up, asking, "Puan, esok macam mana puan?" Laaahai... dah janji nak datang, jadilah yeop! He then asked, "Pukul berapa puan?" He'eleh... your own letter stated that it's supposed to start at 9 am, follow that letter lah yeop... ish! ish! ish!

Anyway, another volunteer promised to tag along and since her office is at the same building as the college, we promised to meet up at the college lobby at 8.45 am. So this morning after making sure I had all the necessary materials in my bag, especially my external hard drive which stores all my files, off I headed to the college.

I got there quite early, and waaah, quite a few of the staff came to greet me. And oh by the way, MF is a staff, not a student as I thought! Well, quite a number of their staff are quite young, I must say. Or is it that I'm the one who's old? Hmmmm....

While waiting for my colleague to come, I was introduced to one of their senior management. The CEO conveyed his apologies for not being able to attend. Once my colleague arrived, we immediately headed to the library where the talk was to be held.

I then made sure my powerpoint presentation was ready before the function started off with one of the staff reciting the doa. The emcee then invited the senior staff to give a speech. He spoke to the students about voluntary work etc and it seemed at first to be quite a long speech, then he himself realised that it wasn't supposed to be his talk but mine... :-) so he stopped and the MC handed over the mike to me.

The talk went well, and I must say amongst the many talks I have given so far, the response this time was the best. Students and lecturers alike responded well and asked quite a lot of questions, to the extent that my throat was rather dry by the end of it. Oh yes, there was a bottle of mineral water and a glass at the rostrum, but I didn't feel comfortable about gulping the water down my throat with everybody else watching me... (I ni pemalu, jangan tak tau... hehehe...)

Questions asked range from matters pertaining to life-span of someone with HIV, what precautions to take when we have to handle someone with HIV, what sort of encouragement we should give to an HIV +ve person, etc.

So yes, I must say that the talk did in at least a small way open up their eyes and their minds to HIV/AIDS, especially with the real life examples I gave about my own clients.

Hopefully after this more colleges will organise such talks for their students. It is this age group that we need to target as more than 70% of HIV infected people in Malaysia consist of youths.

Coming up next: The discussion with the women's wing of a political party pertaining to problems faced by women. Yep, it is confirmed for 2 pm tomorrow.